the fiscal cliff is a problem. you go over the cliff and the consequences can be beautiful% of gdp growth due to automatic cuts by six or $700 billion. the day after that, the market could fall seven or 800 points but washington will get the message. what i fear and what i think is the risk is that they will fix it with a patch that is short-term, it's not substantive, it doesn't have a lot of nutritional content to it and we are going to be right back in again and again. markets will lose confidence. we will gradually lose our global credibility as an economic leader. we might see our credit rating damaged more over time. and it is the slow defense of the united states that is the real risk. the fiscal cliff is something that can be fixed fairly easily. >> host: finally, i would like to go back, david rothkopf come to your comments about government. national government being neanderthal it. there was a throwaway line of sight while we are still organized as nation states economically. again, where we going in the